Maintenance and Capital Planning

The MSBA has instituted many reforms to make the MSBA’s school construction and renovation grant program more effective, efficient, and user-friendly for school districts and to ensure the long-term viability of the program. A vital component of these reforms is to protect the over $20 billion investment in school facility construction and renovation projects throughout the Commonwealth in the past 25 years, through active and on-going maintenance of school facilities by the school districts. The MSBA has adopted criteria based on industry best practices as a prerequisite for MSBA funding and evaluation criteria for the determination of the allocation of maintenance incentive reimbursement points on eligible projects. The following information describes the activities and practices that the MSBA believes are part of a strategy for maintenance and capital planning and budgeting to ensure the long term operation of school facilities. In addition, information is provided to explain the scoring methodology of the maintenance and capital planning rating system.

School districts that have been invited into the MSBA capital pipeline after the Statement of Interest phase is complete will be requested to submit a Maintenance and Capital Planning (MCP) Record using the MSBA web-based Maintenance and Capital Planning System. This information is used to facilitate the MSBA’s assessment of the district’s maintenance and capital planning practices pursuant to c. 70B and 963 CMR. The Maintenance and Capital Planning information provided by the district to the MSBA is a threshold requirement for MSBA funding and can account for up to two additional points of reimbursement for eligible projects. The information you provide via the MCP system is crucial in establishing the portion of this reimbursement for which the district may be eligible. (Eligibility generally depends on the project type and size.)

The MCP system was created to improve the way that the school districts of Massachusetts provide information to the MSBA. This system replaces the previous method of providing this information, which consisted of three paper forms (Maintenance and Capital Planning Questionnaire, Maintenance Budget History and Forecast, and Capital Budget Statement) and will allow for faster submission, provide savings on print and mailing costs, and save time for school district users by importing data from other sources and allowing for the pre-population of records.

Accordingly, if you have been invited into the MSBA capital pipeline for a school project please complete and submit a Maintenance and Capital Planning (MCP) Record using the MSBA’s web based MCP System. To get access to this (or any other MSBA System) District users should fill out an MSBA Eligibility Period System Access Request Form for District User.

Access Request Forms are in Microsoft Word format, and will need to be printed, signed, and returned to the MSBA before access will be granted to any systems. Please allow enough time to get the appropriate signature(s) on the access forms. Most systems require approval from the district’s superintendent for new users. For each user for whom you request access, you will have to specify whether that user will require “edit” or “read-only” access to the MCP.

If you have any questions about completing an MCP record or need help with this system and cannot find the answers to your questions in the MCP user guide, please email Sarah Young at the MSBA, or call her at 617-720-4466.

The following are links to other maintenance and capital planning resources that may be helpful to school districts: